2 Proven Ways to Find Your Ideal Partner

[Jessie Dillon]

Hey y'all, this year has been a gamechanger for me, for one reason: PARTNERSHIPS. I want to share how I found two awesome partners this year, in case you're feeling maxed out doing this RE thing alone.

Rewinding back to Oct 2022, I was resistant to partnerships. I'd built my beauty salon on my own and wanted to continue doing things solo. But BPCON that year opened my eyes. I was feeling stuck, as I was tapped out of my own capital (but rich in time/information), and the convention made me realize that EVERYONE reaches a point where this has to become a team sport. It was actually more of a right of passage + challenged me to pivot. 

On my way home, I made a list of everyone I knew, that probably knew someone who fit my 'ideal partner' description (someone with capital missing, but short on time/information). I blasted through the awkwardness and sent each of them a text like this:

"Hey _______! Hope all is well with you! I'm working on a project that I need some support with, and you came to mind as someone who might be able to help... As you know, Pat and I have been buying rental properties over the last year, and we're ready to scale up and go bigger. We'd like to bring on a partner for this next one; Ideally someone who wants their money to work harder for them than it would in the stock market, and knows the wealth-building power of real estate, but who doesn't really have the time/knowledge/desire to go buy and manage rental properties alone. Since you work in the _______ industry, I'm thinking you may know of a few colleagues who fit that description. Here's my ask: Would you take a second a share this text with anyone that comes to mind? Anyone who would like to discuss can text me at this number. If no one comes to mind for you, no worries at all, I appreciate you taking the time to think on it. Thanks so much, see you soon!"

I texted 5 people per day from my list, it felt super weird, but one partnership came of it that lead to a 13-unit, value-add, multifamily project that we closed on this past summer!

Fast forward to this fall, I have enough investing stories these days to make a decent podcast episode lol, and like most of us, I could talk RE for hours on end. So I had my amazing assistant apply me for almost every real estate -focused podcast out there, and ~10 invitations came from it! One of the first few shows I did this fall, I truthfully didn't think anyone would hear as I'd never even heard of the show, but a Calendly call appointment came in shortly after it was posted; A listener really liked my story and what I'm looking to do next, and we'll be going in a deal together in the coming months!

This is all to say:

1. Unless you have time, knowledge, AND capital... Open your mind to partnerships, AND take the time to find the right ones.

2. Putting yourself out there is uncomfortable. So is NOT making any progress towards your goals lol.

For more ideas on how to connect with the right capital partners, I loved Matt Faircloth's book "Raising Private Capital."

I also...

- Post to Facebook weekly about what's going on in my RE journey, and add as many people as friends as possible

- Don't limit my social content to JUST work-related stuff; People want to know the human behind the projects

- Issue a monthly e-newsletter sharing more detail on the projects I'm working on

- Attend at least 2 non-RE-focused networking events per month

- Post here monthly

- Spend 30mins/wk commenting on forum posts wherever I can provide value

- Share value in all FB groups where my ideal capital partner might be hanging out, monthly

- Try to remember to tell everyone I meet, what I do

- Have my VA engage with the IG profiles of people who fit my 'ideal partner' description, for ~30min/day, 5d/wk

- Check in with my potential partners weekly

- Hold my existing partners on a pedestal and be a woman of my word

& one-off projects:

- Figure out where I can host a few local workshops on how to get into your first rental property. Ex: community use centers, local chambers of commerce...

- VA apply me to all RE podcasts (done)

If this was valuable to you or gave you any great ideas that you'll be implementing, let me know! If you have any OTHER creative ideas for how to connect with your ideal partners, let me know them in the comments. I'm always looking to do more strategic networking!

Thanks for reading & be well!